From: USModernist Newsletter
USModernist and NCModernist are part of Modernist Archive Inc, a 501C3 nonprofit educational archive with a mission to provide donors, volunteers, and advocates the information and organization they require to passionately engage the documentation, preservation, and promotion of residential Modernist architecture. Get connected to exciting tours, parties, design competitions, and DWELL's #2- rated architecture podcast, USModernist Radio. View newsletter in browser. See past newsletters. Online store - with all the thoroughly ridiculous coffee cups, logowear, and mousepads you could possibly want!
Monday, April 13, 2020 ______
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NEWS
Time is a constant dimension, at least here on Earth (it changes around black holes and Waffle Houses after midnight). Our experience of time, though, can change dramatically depending on the situation and the intensity of our feelings. The book Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman is a delightful novel (available here) exploring how our experience of time can vary, as seen through playful and insightful dreams Einstein might have had.
When we are young, for example, time is frustratingly slow. When parents make us wait a week for something, it's an eternity accompanied by a lot of eye-rolling and heavy sighs. When we are older, time speeds up. A year can feel like a moment ago. Wait, wasn't it just Christmas? Wasn't I just taking down these damn lights?
One of the book's most profound stories involves seeing time like a circle, where in the center time is almost still and a second feels like forever, and on the outer edge time rapidly flies by like a NASCAR race. Who do you find in the center? Mothers and their newborns bonding, soulmates open to sharing each other's deepest emotions, and bedside goodbyes as loved ones move on to whatever it is that follows life. For me, and I suspect for many people across the world, extended staying at home (if we are lucky enough to do that) has altered our experience of time towards that introspective, joyful, sometimes painful center. Stay safe, stay home, we can get through this.
George Smart, Executive Director [email protected], 919 740 8407
PS. Last week, we featured directrelief.org which works nationally to provide support to those in need during this crisis. More specifically, you can help one of the New York hospitals here. Or choose from among the relief efforts in your city. This is a time for those of us who can donate - to actually do it. ______
Goodbye Bill Menking: Bill was an invaluable part of the architecture community of New York as well as nationally and internationally. Best known for founding The Architect’s Newspaper with Diana Darling in 2003, Bill was on the Board of Directors at the Storefront for Art and Architecture and The Architecture Lobby, as well as a tenured professor and trustee at Pratt Institute. He was the curator of the 2008 U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture and organized many other exhibitions.
How museums and galleries are going virtual.
Judith Chaffee and her pioneering Desert Modernism.
A $20,000 cardboard competition.
The SAH Archipedia is a great source for buildings around the US and the world.
From the New York Times: The Magic of Empty Streets, by Allison Arieff. Social distancing gives us a rare chance to fix cities.
Brutalist Modernism in China.
Ruth Asawa's art is now on US stamps!
2020 is the 85th anniversary of Schrodinger's Cat. Hmmm....do we celebrate? Or not?
Check out USModernist's Resource page with modernist groups, events, databases, and Jean- Paul Bonfils' extensive Powerpoint and video library.
April 16-19: The Architecture and Design Film Festival is going online for the architecture and design community to remain engaged and experience a few specially-curated films. ADFF will offer one film each night, including a live introduction and special guests. Following each film, Q&A with the film’s director. Movies start live at 8:00 pm ET and replays at 8:00 pm PT. Just 99c each!
April 16, The Human Shelter, Director: Boris Benjamin Bertram. 2018 / 57 min / Denmark. This film is a poetic journey investigating how we, as human beings, design and build our homes. Watch Trailer / Get Tickets.
April 17: Glenn Murcutt: Spirit of Place, Director: Catherine Hunter. 2017 / 59 min / Australia. Explores the life and art of Australia’s most famous living architect. Watch Trailer / Get Tickets.
April 18, James Hubbell - Between Heaven and Earth, Director: Marianne Gerdes. 2019 / 66 min / USA. James Hubbell has inspired works so exquisite they’ve been commissioned for churches, synagogues, parks, even a palace. Get Tickets.
April 19: City Dreamers. Director: Joseph Hillel. 2018 / 80 min / Canada. Phyllis Lambert, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, and Denise Scott Brown were four trailblazers with extensive accomplishments in architecture, planning and landscape architecture that inspired generations of professionals. Watch Trailer / Get Tickets.
Look for daily giveaways of art and architecture books and DVDs and Blurays on the Mr.Modernism, USModernist, and NCModernist Instagram feeds!
New to podcasts? You can listen to USModernist Radio through any computer. USModernist Radio is sponsored by Modernist realtor Angela Roehl and Nichiha.com. See past shows.
New: #138/Reviving Craig Ellwood: Craig Ellwood was one of the most exciting people in American architecture. He took Los Angeles by storm and no one since has fully captured his personal style or his incredible story - but that's on the way. Although he took structural engineering courses at UCLA, Ellwood was not a licensed architect, but that did not matter to him or to his clients. Ellwood was a true design genius. Ellwood could sell, too. He had a red Ferrari (among other great cars) and was a perfect fit with the celebrity culture of Los Angeles. He was a master of promotion. Derided by the architecture profession of which he was formally not a part, he rose to public fame when three of his houses were included in the iconic Case Study House series for Arts and Architecture Magazine. His houses are still incredibly prized today. From Modernism Week 2020, poolside at the swanky Hotel Skylark, aka the USModernist Compound, host George Smart interviews noted Ellwood restorer Barton Jahncke and his client, Ellwood owner Diane Bald, and later on George talks with architects of another Ellwood restoration, Joe Dangaran and Brett Woods.
Tours are our single largest source of funding, raising nearly 40% of our entire year's budget. Despite all the uncertainty, we will get through this crisis and when we do, we will reschedule with more fun tours, talks, and programs. On behalf of all our board, staff, volunteers, and participants, we thank you!
April 18: NCModernist's Modapalooza Tour - postponed, date TBA.
April 18-19: Palm Springs Historic Site Preservation Board Preservation Matters event canceled.
April 23: NCModernist's Thirst4Architecture Party at Beyond Blue, Raleigh, postponed until fall date TBA.
April 25: NCModernist's Winston-Salem Tour - postponed, date TBA.
April 25: Rhode Island State Preservation Conference - postponed to April 2021.
May 1: USModernist's Washington DC Tour - postponed until fall, date TBA.
May 7: Open House New York Gala at the United Nations - postponed, date TBA.
May 12: The Iconic Houses Conference in the Netherlands, moved to June 1-4, 2021.
May 14: AIA National Conference in Los Angeles - postponed, date TBA.
May 30-June 7: Atlanta Design Festival, Atlanta/Asheville, postponed to Sep 12-20.
June 3-6: Docomomo National Symposium, Chicago - postponed, date TBA.
June 13: Glass House Summer Party, New Canaan CT: still on schedule but likely will be postponed.
October 23-24: New Canaan Modern Tour, New Canaan CT, still on schedule.
October: The World Expo 2020 in Dubai UAE will likely be postponed a year.
And in travel news: the deadline to obtain a REAL ID-compliant drivers license to board an airliner was October 1 but will be extended a year.
There are so many ways you can be part of USModernist!
1. Connect us to collectors/libraries of architecture magazines in their attic, basement, or storage unit. USModernist is collecting and scanning almost 3 million pages and making them available to the public. We need certain ones and we'll pay for shipping.
2. Have you got an iconic mid-century chair, table, or clock (Eames, Nelson, Barcelona, Bertoia, etc.)? Donate it and get a great tax deduction!
3. Donate a collection of Sunset Magazine, a great chronicle of Western architecture.
4. Want to research Modernist houses from home? USModernist's crowd-research project needs volunteers to scout the internet, as we more fully document 8,000 iconic Modernist houses across America. It's incredibly fun to put together clues to find America's rich legacy of Modernist design. Email [email protected].
5. Explore our Masters Gallery, featuring nearly every iconic house in America by the great masters of 20th century Modernism. Warning: highly addictive!
6. Twenty-five percent of support for the documentation, preservation, and promotion of Modernist residential architecture comes from our members called the Mod Squad! Through May 1, a spouse/partner gets a free year's membership with your paid membership. All you have to do is email their name and email address after you join! Mod Squad members get first priority for tickets for tours and special events, plus discounts for many of those tours and events. Details.
Contact George Smart at [email protected] or Rebekah Laney at [email protected]. ______Hat tips to Daniel Perrin and Virginia Faust.
TOURS, TALKS, and EVENTS
November 6-8, honoring Carl Abbott FAIA
NEW BOOKS
New book available May 5: Furniture in Architecture: The Work of Luke Hughes-Arts & Crafts in the Digital Age, which surveys the work of one of today's most inspirational furniture designers and makers. The work of Luke Hughes & Company is extraordinary in its variety, ranging from Westminster Abbey, two chapels at the Tower of London, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah synagogue in New York City, the British Embassy in Moscow, and the UK Supreme Court in London.
Open for Submissions: The George Matsumoto Prize is North Carolina's highest honor exclusively for Modernist residential architecture. The Matsumoto Prize is open to any architect or designer of a Modernist house in North Carolina built within the past five years. Submission details. Deadline May 1. To increase participation, the entry fee has been reduced 50%. The 2020 Matsumoto Prize is powered by Nichiha.
Vacancy, not development, is the enemy of mid-century Modernist houses. Preserve and protect the architecture you love by buying or renting before the bulldozers come a few years from now. Visit our exclusive statewide list.
USModernist and NCModernist are part of Modernist Archive Inc, a North Carolina 501C3 nonprofit educational archive providing donors, volunteers, and advocates the information and organization they require to passionately engage the documentation, preservation, and promotion of residential Modernist architecture. Get connected to exciting tours, parties, design competitions, and USModernist Radio, the podcast named by DWELL as their #2 top architecture podcast,
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